Calendar of Events

St. Olaf College

Sponsored by Tennis (men)

Date: Saturday, March 16, 2013

Time: 5:30 pm

Location: Rochester, Minn.

The Luther men’s tennis team found itself back in the win column with a 7-2 victory over St. Olaf on Saturday, March 16 at Rochester Tennis Connection in Rochester, Minn. Luther won a pair of doubles matches and then topped the Oles at the top five singles slots to secure the victory.

Nick Mozena and Matt Bellio paired for the first time this season and were (8-2) winners at No. 2 doubles against Joey Kronzer and Charlie Reinertsen. After trading a pair of service breaks in the first two games, Kronzer and Reinertsen held and then led 0-40 on Bellio’s serve, looking to take control of the match. Bellio and Mozena teamed up to hold that game and never looked back, winning the final seven games of the match. Sean Brown and Samuel Cychosz also got on an early roll, grabbing a quick 3-0 lead and cruising to an (8-3) win against Ben Carlson and Ryan Abdella at No. 3.

St. Olaf tallied its first point at No. 1 doubles where Andy Catania and Stephen Nolan knocked off Luther’s Ramesh Karki and Quinn Foley by an (8-3) score, making it a 2-1 match heading into singles play.

Torstein Jystad put together his best performance of the spring, winning (6-2, 6-3) over Reinertsen at No. 4 after having defeated Reinertsen in a long, three set match last spring. St. Olaf closed the gap with a (6-4, 6-7 (7), (10-6)) win from Mike Schroeder over Luther’s Matt Knutson at No. 6.

With the momentum of the match hanging in the balance, Mozena and Bellio came through with tight victories to secure the win for the Norse. Mozena rallied for a (1-6, 6-2, (10-7)) win over Nolan at No. 2 while Bellio fought off a match point and completed his own rally, winning (3-6, 7-5, (12-10) against Kronzer at No. 3. Karki fought off a late charge from Catania to score a (6-3, 7-5) victory at No. 1. Foley closed out the scoring by tallying a (6-3, 6-4) win over Nico Gibb at No. 5.

The Norse are now 3-5 overall this season and will resume competition with the squad’s annual spring trip to Orlando, Fla., March 25-29.